Ear training

Here, my student Georgia is working on Dragon Dance from Pattern Pieces 2. She was having a little trouble bringing in the right hand on time in one section. Rather than tell her where the glitch was or having her count it out, I decided in this case to give her an opportunity to listen…

A buddy piano lesson is what I call it when two students’ lesson times overlap in the middle, so that they get some time one on one, and some time together. The specific durations of each segment are up to each teacher. In my studio I give two options: 40 minute buddy lessons: 20 minutes…

Singing can be one of your most valuable piano teaching tools. It can help you to correct, guide and encourage your piano students. However, singing in the piano studio is often relegated to aural exercises. That’s how I started too – teaching my students solfa so that they could pass the sight-singing component of their…

What way were you taught about natural minor scales? Do you even remember? I do, and I think the way we go about teaching this is a little odd… The standard way of teaching natural minor scales (at least in this country) is as a segue to harmonic minor scales. We don’t stop there, it’s…

I have been harping on for a while now about the many benefits of singing for all music students – not just those who are “natural singers”. Vocal warmups and exercises can help to teach concepts that are otherwise too abstract for beginning piano students. High and low solfa notes can be a stumbling block…

I love games. As soon as you land on my blog you’ll see tons of free piano teaching games that I share here and use in my studio. Games make learning FUN, which I believe is a very serious business. I have a lot of games in my studio. All have their merits, but some…

Group workshops are a wonderful opportunity for piano students to get together and learn in a different environment. At my studio, I hold a workshop about once a month – and every Piano Party needs a piano party plan. All my piano parties are muti-age and multi-level. Whoever is available is welcome to attend! This is…

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About Nicola

Nicola has been teaching piano since 2005 and runs a creative piano teaching studio in Dublin, Ireland. Nicola believes in music lessons that motivate and inspire, and shares some of her ideas for vibrant piano lessons on the Colourful Keys blog.

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